The Child Health Research Center at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh and the Department of Pediatrics of the University of Pittsburgh will function as a University-wide interdisciplinary program to train a cadre of pediatric scientists in modern methods of molecular biology that have relevance to understanding the Molecular Mechanisms and Treatment of Childhood Disease. From a pool of promising young faculty or potential faculty, three to four will be appointed by the Principal Investigator in any one year as New Project Development or Physician Scientist Awardees, after careful scrutiny by an Executive Committee and recommendation by an Advisory Board. Awardees will be paired with an Established Investigator/mentor in whose laboratory they will spend a major portion of allocated research time; the other portion of time will be spent in the transgenic mouse core facility with its preparatory laboratory. A plan to enhance the likelihood of recruiting and developing minority and women candidates for this program is described. Leadership of this CHRC is in the hands of pediatricians representing the administrative and scientific directors of the Department of Pediatrics and the Department of Human Genetics. Each has a record of NIH support and of fostering, developing and retaining pediatric scientists in academic positions. A wealth of talented Established Investigators from several University departments, whose focus is the molecular mechanisms and potential treatment of human disease, have agreed to serve as mentors, making available their time, laboratories and extensive University core support to developing pediatric scientists. Extensive Institutional support is evident in the commitment of Children's Hospital to build and equip the Core Laboratory ($197,000) and to accept a progressively lower indirect cost rate enabling the ongoing support for the developing scientists. The theme and structure of this proposal will fulfill the goals of the Child Health Research Center program and advance the achievement of the research mission of the NICHD. The Child Health Research Center will enable attraction, development and retention of pediatric scientists who will be competitive for extra-mural funding by being able to apply modern tools of molecular biology to relevant pediatric problems, enabling the rapid translation of exciting basic science discoveries to the clinical bedside.